I am not impressed with this panel-based presentation; more space for less content. While this may be appropriate for mobile phones and other touch screen devices, it's cumbersome for the desktop user. Desktop users prefer text or icons, panels are a poor use of space and are harsh on the eyes (at least in my case). By the way, the panel presentation is one of the bigger gripes people have with Windows 8.

I am likely change the home page in my browsers to that of a news organization with a more traditional front page.

PS - I just looked at a few news sites:Yahoo - not much better but they do have a category selection menu on the left side.BBC - messyABC News - not impressiveCNN - much betterGoogle News - much betterFox News - the presentation is much better than NBC but it's still Fox News (no thanks)